Use These 7 Common Food Items For Healthier Skin Complexion And Silky Smooth Hair

You're probably aware that eating a balanced diet helps you look healthier, but have you thought about adding healthy foods to your beauty regimen?

Many of the healthy foods that we eat can also provide excellent health benefits when applied to the skin and hair. Here, we give you information on how to use seven different food items for a healthier appearance.

1. Olive Oil

Olive oil is well-known for its moisturizing abilities. It helps keep the skin hydrated by locking in moisture and can also be helpful for those with eczema or psoriasis.

Use it straight from the bottle as a conditioner for your hair to help prevent split ends.

You can also look for shampoos, conditioners, cleansers and moisturizers that contain olive oil as an ingredient.

2. Oatmeal

We've all heard how eating oatmeal can help lower the cholesterol. But oatmeal is also wonderful for helping sooth itchiness and skin rashes caused by things like poison oak or poison ivy, and also chicken pox. It can even help lessen the pain and irritation from sunburn.

Just dump dry oatmeal into the bathtub with warm water, and then soak in it for about ten minutes.

Oatmeal is also a wonderful skin exfoliator. Make a paste with warm water and massage it onto the skin using a circular motion. Let it dry on your skin for ten minutes, then rinse thoroughly.

3. Honey

Honey has long been known to shorten the healing time of superficial wounds and burns.

It also has been proven to be a powerful skin moisturizer, which explains why it can be found in everything from soaps to lip balms. Look for moisturizing products which list honey among their ingredients.

4. Pumpkin

As skin matures, it has a slower rate of cell renewal, which causes a dull complexion. However, pumpkin can help renew that youthful glow!

Enzymes found in pumpkin flesh can help exfoliate those dead skin cells and increase the rate of new cell generation. Pumpkins are also a great source of skin-hydrating fatty acids as well as antioxidants Vitamin A and Vitamin C. These help combat the free radicals that can cause skin to age.

You can find pumpkin used in hair and scalp treatments as well as in body and facial peels.

5. Salmon

While of course you wouldn't smear it over your skin, salmon and other cold-water fishes contain a skin rejuvenating compound known as dimethylaminoethanol (or DMAE).

You can find DMAE in moisturizing or hydrating creams, and also reap the benefits by making sure to eat sufficient quantities of cold-water fish.

6. Seaweed

Seaweed has long been popular in Japan and France as a skin care ingredient, and it's becoming more popular in the US too.

Seaweed has a wide range of cosmetic advantages. It's loaded not only with vitamins and minerals but also with amino acids that can help reduce redness and irritations while cleansing and firming the skin.

Seaweed is also believed to improve blood circulation, and so is used as an essential ingredient in detoxifying spa treatments as well as in many cellulite treatments.

7. Green Tea

Green tea's many benefits are known around the world; by drinking it you can lower cholesterol and its antioxidant ingredients can help reduce the risk of glaucoma and some cancers.

Those same powerful antioxidants work to reduce fine lines and wrinkles when green tea is applied to the skin. It can also help keep skin hydrated.

You can find green tea in cleansers, masks and moisturizing creams. And for tired, puffy eyes, you can simply apply green tea bags moistened with cold water for about ten minutes.